2023-09-29 17:34:00
The Engagés recruitment operation sparked a lot of mockery in the liberal camp. If we are to believe the sarcastic messages from several MR elected officials, the new recruits of Maxime Prévot’s movement are nobodys, unknown faces, left-wing personalities and old white men.
”You are a white man, 55 years old and you want to retrain? Look no further, Les Engagés have a head of list for you alongside Olivier de Wasseige, Yves Coppieters, Yvan Verougstraete and Jean-Jacques Cloquet to represent the society of tomorrow”, for example quipped the MP Rachel Sobry on X (Twitter).
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Thursday, Les Engagés presented their Brussels head of list for the federal government in the person of Elisabeth Degryse. The former vice-president of the Christian Mutuality is a good choice to speak to social liberals who would be uncomfortable with the war waged by the president of the MR Georges-Louis Bouchez against mutual societies and unions. “I want to defend the intermediate bodies,” declared the Brussels resident to justify her political commitment.
This gesture was welcomed by left-wing figures in the community, such as François Perl, strategic advisor to the socialist mutuality Solidaris. On the MR side, on the contrary, we ridiculed this “left” recruit, this “name we had never heard of”. Brussels MP Geoffrey Coomans highlighted this “art of announcing something new with something old”, recalling that the new head of the list had already officiated under the humanist banner when she worked in the cabinet of Joëlle Milquet (former president of the CDH and minister federal).
The announcement of the very probable arrival of Vincent Blondel, rector of UCLouvain, to reinforce the humanist troops raises the same taunts. Overall, the idea is to say: “but who is he?”.
Among the Engagés, we savor these barbs. “They have the seum”, sweeps away a central figure of the party, telling us that the Reformers would in reality be annoyed by their takeover bid for the social liberals. Several of the figures who joined the centrists had also been approached by Bouchez’s liberals. The fact that Olivier de Wasseige and Jean-Jacques Cloquet, notable figures in the economic world, chose the turquoise stable rather than the blue is experienced as if the former had pulled the rug out from under the feet of the latter.
”Georges-Louis Bouchez passed the word to his troops to no longer say anything positive about the Engagés. The watchword is to denigrate us as much as possible,” regrets another important personality of the movement. “It shows that they have stopped ignoring us.”
Recent recruitments among the Engagés do not worry the MR: “They will be trapped”
Another pillar of the party brings some nuances to the picture. For him, there is no question of comparing the situation to a transfer window. “We are not a football club. We don’t buy people. The arrival of new personalities among us is the result of interpersonal relationships. When he explained the reasons for his departure from the Liberals, Jean-Luc Crucke took a series of people in his wake. The MR is perhaps a little feverish now because he’s having a bad streak. But at almost 20% in the polls, I don’t think they’re really worried.”
Within the MR, we reframe. The agitation surrounding the Engaged is only seen as momentary. It will dissipate when the Liberals enter the dance by presenting their own new recruits. However, we are confirmed that very serious contacts had been made between CEOs Cloquet and de Wasseige and the blues. Promises had even been made, promises which would not have been kept. Which would explain part of the “seum”.
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